


Vanilla Ice Cream

by titlewave



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: F/F, because i love these two and this little musical, erin is like a helpless little kitten, from the musical She Loves Me, holtz bears ice cream, inspired by the song vanilla ice cream, mention of Patty and Abby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 08:54:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7633888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/titlewave/pseuds/titlewave
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This isn't the first time she has been disappointed by a date. </p>
<p>This is, however, the first time she has been stood up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vanilla Ice Cream

**Author's Note:**

> This is loosely based off of the idea of the song Vanilla Ice Cream from the musical She Loves Me.
> 
> Also, any and all mistakes are mine.

This isn't the first time she has been disappointed by a date.

This is, however, the first time she has been stood up. Left in a moderately fancy restaurant, awkwardly sipping a glass of water, her hands vibrating as she holds them firmly clasped together.

Erin Gilbert doesn't date. Partly by choice, partly by the lack of dates she is asked on. She doesn't date and she doesn't mind.

(She actually does mind, she minds quite a bit, but she tries not to wallow.

Screw it. She's been stood up and she's upset. She can wallow).

Her dating record is composed of three dates with a boy she met in college, who was only interested in “getting lucky”, and two dates with a guy she met at the corner bodega who was actually, apparently gay.

When she met the man who would ultimately stand her up, she was genuinely surprised that he asked her out. She had laughed and then with a straight face, had said, “wait, you're serious?”

—–————————

She's crying. She's laying face down on her bed, sniffling and whimpering, and wondering why she is so unlikable. She feels like a teenage girl.

(Abby and Patty had tried to talk to her when she returned to the fire station but she brushed them off with an “I’m just tired” and went to her room).

When there is a knock on her door, she sits up and wipes at her cheeks.

“Who is it?”

Erin moves to get the door, but the door is already opening.

Holtzmann is standing in the doorway, holding a brown paper bag. Erin notices that she looks a tad nervous, a trait she is sure Holtzmann has never held around her.

Erin sits cross legged on her bed, a small smile on her face.

“Do you like vanilla ice cream?” Holtzmann extends her arm, lightly shaking the paper bag.

Erin must be feeling overly emotional  tonight because she starts sniffling and nodding and when Holtzmann pulls a carton of ice cream out of the bag Erin starts crying.

“Holtz,” Erin whimpers, taking the ice cream into her embrace. “Thank you.”

“I could hear you crying. We all could."

Erin nods, hugging the carton to her face.

“Date didn't go well?”

“He stood me up,” Erin bluntly says.

“What?” Holtzmann drawls, stepping closer to Erin’s bed and out of the shadows of the doorway.

“Yep,” Erin mumbles. “You're looking at a very disillusioned person, Holtz.”

“I thought I was the mad scientist of the group?” The smirk Holtzmann often spoke with is present, but her voice has more of a joking inflection than her usual flirtatious one.

Erin inwardly smiles.

She doesn't know what to think.

The tears that are dampening her cheeks drip onto the lid of the ice cream. She touches the droplets with her index finger. She hasn't cried in front of another person in years.

She sucks in a breath. “I suppose I am the crazy, unpleasant one. I'm like a stuffed animal and somebody has finally managed to kick out all of the stuffing.”

Holtzmann opens her mouth, kind of hangs it for a second before saying, “What?”

“I’m having a serious issue...one that can't be fixed by DeBarge.”

Holtzmann's lips fall into a frown and Erin feels badly being the cause. _Why_ is she so hormonal right now?

“Well, if DeBarge can't help, taking is the next best step,” Holtzmann says, climbing into Erin’s bed, mirroring her cross legged position.

“Oh,” Erin says, leaning back as she shakes her head ‘no’. What is she supposed to say? That she feels stupid, that she wishes that she possessed even an ounce of likability, that she feels…

...Holtzmann’s hand on her ankle. She glances down, feeling heat trickle around her neck.

_Hm._

Erin sighs. “Okay.”

Holtzmann smiles, and Erin feels her eyes water.

Erin feels her chest constrict.

Erin feels Holtzmann’s index finger tapping on her ankle bone.

“Holtz,” Erin says, looking at Holtzmann, and then back down at her hands, at her still tapping finger.

“Has anyone ever called you ugly?”

“Of course.”

Erin glances up at her, tears being blinked away. She isn't sure why she asked, maybe she feels unattractive. Maybe that's why she has been stood up; because she's not only unpleasant, she’s also unattractive.

“Calling someone ugly is the original of unoriginal insults.”

There is still tapping, except Erin is looking at Holtzmann.

“I've...uh, never thought of it as unoriginal. Just mean.”

She is right, though, Erin decides.

Holtzmann agrees, that it is mean, but that it is unoriginal.

“We should eat this ice cream before it completely melts,” Holtzmann says, uncrossing her legs so she can stand up.

Erin immediately finds herself missing the closeness of Holtzmann.

She realizes her face is still wet, that her legs are definitely asleep, and that her heartbeat is reverberating throughout her head.

“Yeah, sounds good.”

Holtzmann, for some reason, salutes as she announces that she is going to grab them spoons from the kitchen area. 

Erin extends her legs in front of her, huffing a breath of air. She likes Holtzmann, she truly does.

And she thought, _yeah, maybe dating isn't for me, but Holtz is._


End file.
